Backlinks

Backlinks are an important factor in a good SEO strategy. With backlinks, you ensure a better ranking, which ultimately moves your website higher in the search engines. But what exactly are backlinks? We explain that to you in this article, along with some examples and an explanation of the impact.

What are backlinks?

A backlink is a link that comes from another website. A hyperlink is used to reference your website from that other website. A search engine sees a backlink as a recommendation to your website.

The more quality and relevant backlinks refer to your website, the better the authority of your website. Search engines like Google like to put the authorities and specialists in a niche at the top because they are the most recommended by backlinks.

Examples of backlinks

So a backlink is a link from an external website that redirects to your website, giving your website more authority. For example, a blog on the topic of your website may have been written on an external website that references your website via a backlink.

Or, for example, you yourself are a guest blogger on an external website and at the bottom of the blog you put a backlink to your website.

The importance of backlinks

In Google’s algorithm, link building is one of the oldest factors. In addition, there are more than 200 factors that determine your final search engine ranking. Here, link building weighs 50%. Backlinks are a part of this link building, making it a weighty factor within SEO. So backlinks are a very important part to focus on.

The impact of backlinks

When you use backlinks you ensure better link building of your website. Correctly done backlinks can bring many benefits, including a better ranking in Google and more audience coming to your website through these backlinks. This shows that your website contains the right content and has authority in your field of work.

My advice

With a website dedicated to SEO, backlinks really cannot be missing. It’s wise to educate yourself in advance about what the right backlinks are for your website, so you don’t do unnecessary work or use the wrong backlinks.

Senior SEO-specialist

Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
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I have been working for 10 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 22 March 2024. The last update of this article was on 22 March 2024. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.